Join

Why join?

Entertainment companies are formed to make profits. However, in pursuing this goal, the interests and well being of the skilled artists and crafts people serving the entertainment industry are frequently compromised or, in many cases, entirely overlooked. Therefore, the Art Directors Guild Local 800’s goal is to improve the quality of its members lives through "collective bargaining". Simply stated, when we stand together we are able to negotiate wages, working conditions and benefits that are fair and reasonable. Health and welfare, retirement benefits and minimum wage scales and working conditions are negotiated by the union in the majority of our collective bargaining agreements, and the employers make contributions on behalf of covered employees, in accordance with those agreements.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU AS A MEMBER OF THE Art Directors Guild.

Art directors

Who Are Art Directors

Production Designer

Production Designers create and develop the overall look, atmosphere and emotion that move the story. Production Designers are involved in the overall production design and or selections of visual effects, lighting, props and set dressing. They communicate regularly with producers, directors and cinematographers and collaborate consistently with the second unit, stunts, special effects and numerous other departments. As the head of the Art Department, they provide all necessary backgrounds and ensure that all sets are well photographed and contribute to the totality of the film, television show, award show, or commercial.

Art Director

Art Director's responsibilities and contributions to the production are the same regardless of whether that production is originated on film, digital data, tape or live electronic transmission. The Art Director's primary function is to support and follow through on the visual concepts for the production as specified by the Production Designer and Director. That support includes a combination of both creative and management skills. Additionally, the Art Director is responsible either completely or in part for the efforts of many departments within the production. These departments include: Art Department, Construction, Set Dressing, Props, Locations, and Special Effects.

Assistant Art Director

Assistant Art Directors work with film construction crews such as the construction coordinator, foreman, painters, plasters, greenspeople, sign painters, metal shop workers, staff shop workers, mechanical effects builders and grips. The Assistant Art Director is also responsible for acquiring materials, both common and unusual, needed for the production, for doing research on period and contemporary design elements, and otherwise assisting the Production Designer and Art Director as required.

The Production Designer is the one who looks at nothing and sees everything – all the possibilities.

— Harold Michelson, Production Designer

In a period film, detail is important. You can’t just put a can of soup on the shelf – it has to be the right can of soup.

— Dean Tavoularis, Production Designer

You don’t get the best work out of people by standing around, telling them what to do. You get the best work out of people by stepping back and letting them shine.

Eligibility

Assistant Art Directors will be eligible to join the union if he/she has 400 days experience in an Art Department craft in the last four 4 years. Art Directors must have 175 days experience as either an Art Director or a Production Designer and have an established reputation and status in production design.

Individuals who perform covered work as an Art Director or Assistant Art Director under a Local 800 or IATSE collective bargaining agreement may apply for membership thirty days following commencement of employment. The individual is obligated to submit an application and the required fees in accordance with the Agreement under which he or she is employed as the necessary precondition to continued employment under a union agreement. Many of the Local 800 agreements require that preference of employment be given to those individuals having previous work experience in the motion picture industry.

Eligibility for application and admission into Local 800 as an Art Director or Assistant Art Director is typically triggered by working for a signatory company in a Local 800 covered classification. Thirty calendar days from the start date the employee is required to join Local 800. And there are four typical scenarios:

When a project starts out non-union then signs an IA agreement; that is, it's organized. Employees working in a Local 800 covered classification when the project is organized are "grandfathered" into the union.

Employees also become eligible when they work on signatory commercials and music videos.

If a signatory company not covered (say one doing a television show or feature film), wants to hire an Art Director or Assistant Art Director, and the individual is not on the Industry Experience Roster, the company may petition the Local to do so under the applicable Off-Roster sideletter to the Local 800 Basic Agreement. If the petition is granted by the Off-Roster Hiring Review Committee, the individual may be hired and is eligible for admission into the Union.

If the individual in is already on the Roster at the time he/she is hired by the signatory company, the company doesn't require the Guild's permission for that hire, and the individual is eligible for admission into the Union and is required to join after thirty calendar days.

Motion Picture/Television Industry Experience Roster

Entrance onto the Industry Experience Roster assures the individual preference of employment over all others not on the Roster; placement on the Roster is a necessary pre-condition for Art Directors and Assistant Art Directors wishing to work on most film and television projects. Once on the Motion Picture Industry Experience Roster, individuals are eligible to work on signatory projects without having to get the Guild's permission. And when the individual begins work on the signatory project in a Local 800 covered classification, he she must join the Local on or after the 30th calendar day from that date.

How to get on "The Roster"

To get onto the Industry Experience Roster, one must apply to Contract Services and have worked a total of no less than 30 days for one or more signatory companies, within a period of 365 consecutive calendar days immediately preceding the time the person makes application for Roster placement. Another way to qualify for Roster placement would be to have worked 175 days as an Art Director/Assistant Art Director, union or non-union, in the three year period preceding application for Roster placement.

Commercial Industry Experience Roster

Thirty (30) days working for a commercial signatory is required, and an additional 60 days of commercial work qualifies the person for placement on the Motion Picture Industry Experience Roster.